Former Novgorod senator was accused of taking bribes

In the Italian resort town of Cortina d'Ampezzo, a former senator from the Novgorod region, Dmitry Krivitsky, was detained. In Russia, he was indicted in absentia in receiving bribes in 2012 in the amount of 17 million rubles. For patronage of the former vice-governor of the region Arnold Shalmuyev and ex-chief of the state-owned enterprise "Novgorod Avtodor" Nikolay Zakaldaev in the road sector. Both later became involved in a high-profile case of embezzlement of budget funds and were convicted.

Italian police detained former Russian senator Dmitry Krivitsky on Monday. The reason was that Mr. Krivitsky has been on international wanted list for several years at the request of Russia. It is assumed that tomorrow the court of Venice will begin to consider materials on the extradition of Dmitry Krivitsky to Russia.

The criminal case against the former senator (he represented the region in the Federation Council from 2011 to 2016) was instituted on January 30, 2017. Mr. Krivitsky was charged with receiving a bribe in a particularly large amount (part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The prosecution did not manage to bring charges directly to the politician, since he had already gone abroad before that. On February 28, 2017, he was declared a federal one, and on March 1, 2017 - on an international wanted list. The court passed the decision on his arrest in absentia, after which the data on Mr. Krivitsky were sent to Interpol.

In the criminal case we are talking about the events of 2012. Then law enforcement officers became aware of the transfer of "from local residents" Novgorod senator 15 million rubles. The money, according to the investigation, was intended for the general patronage of the then head of the Novgorod State Automobile Inspection "Novgorodgorododor" Nikolai Zakaldaev and the vice-governor of the Novgorod region Arnold Shalmuyev, who supervised the road economy. The senator for the reward was to facilitate the unhindered activity of the "wards" in the allocation of budget funds allocated for the construction of roads and their maintenance. As they say in the case materials, the total amount of the bribe was to be 50 million rubles. The money should be transferred through an assistant and at the same time the driver of the senator of St. Petersburg Vadim Smirnov and then placed on the account of a politician in the St. Petersburg branch of one of the banks. As the investigation established, only four tranches were transferred in favor of the senator for a total of 17 million rubles. And the money was given not by Shalmuyev and Zakaldaev themselves, but by the leaders of the Novgorod road contracting enterprises, the Novgorod Avtodor.

Vadim Smirnov was detained. He pleaded guilty and concluded a pre-trial cooperation agreement with the prosecutor's office, giving testimony about all the details of the corruption scheme. At the beginning of this year, Smirnov received a special order in three years of the colony, although the state prosecution offered to limit himself to conditional punishment. The appeal court rejected the complaint of protection against the verdict.

Note that the "wards" of Senator Shalmuyev and Zakaldaev took advantage of their authority in the field of road construction by no means a legal way. In 2014, the former vice-governor, along with several other accomplices, appeared before the court in the case of embezzlement of budget funds allocated for work in the road sector. In early 2016, the former official received eight years ten months of the colony. Zakaldaev, who, besides thefts, was charged with bribery, pleaded guilty, and his case was examined in a special order. He received eight years in prison.